Panama's front-runner in the presidential election vowed on Tuesday to begin deporting and stopping migrants bound for the United States from crossing the lawless jungle that straddles the country's border with Colombia.
More than half a million people braved the so-called Darien Valley last year, facing dangerous river crossings and violent criminal gangs carrying out extortion, kidnapping and abuse.
“We will close Darien and repatriate all these people,” José Raul Mulino told reporters during a visit to a working-class neighborhood on the outskirts of the capital, but he didn't know exactly how. He did not say whether he would.
“We hope and trust that the United Nations (Refugee Agency) will help us,” he added, pledging to respect the human rights of migrants.
Like other international and non-governmental organizations, United Nations agencies are sending personnel to assist migrants in the jungle.
Most people crossing the Darien River are fleeing Venezuela's economic crisis, but migrants from Africa and Asia are also entering the remote rainforest on their way to the United States.
“The U.S. border has moved to Panama instead of Texas,” said Mulino, who served as security secretary during the war. Ricardo MartinelliHe served as president from 2009 to 2014.
Mr. Mulino emphasized the need for Panama to work with the United States and Colombia to address this issue.
With less than three weeks until the May 5 election, Mulino has 34 percent support among voters, according to a Doxa firm poll released Monday.
This puts him comfortably ahead of centre-right lawyer Ricardo Lombana with 15% and former Social Democratic President Martín Torrijos with 13%.
Panama's electoral tribunal canceled Martinelli's candidacy last month, a month after he lost his last attempt to escape prison and took asylum in the Nicaraguan embassy.
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